End of the Beginning

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Kenji dragged his feet across the ground, though he was pretty sure that he wasn't actually stepping on anything. It was one of the many mysteries that plagued Kenji's mind as he continued his seemingly endless pilgrimage through the Abyss. Kenji could only vaguely remember the events that lead up to his banishment, but he had appeared in the middle of nowhere naked his body reverted back to before his quirk awakened. He didn't know how long it had been since he first appeared in the endless void, but at this point walking had become autonomous, one foot in front of the other over and over without end. 

Kenji marched on, through a darkness so blinding that even the brightest star would be snuffed and smothered. With no point of reference Kenji couldn't tell how far he had walked or if he had crossed any distance at all. 

The only thing Kenji could feel was the abyss clawing away at his body and soul, trying to consume him for its sole purpose of consumption. But instead of being torn apart Kenji felt the opposite happen, his soul started to siphon off of the abyss feeding itself. But Kenji was no more capable of eating the entire abyss than a lonely fish drinking the ocean it swam in. But that didn't mean the effort had no meaning. Kenji could feel his soul approach something, a zenith that would turn him into something more. But until that happened all Kenji could do was walk. 

'Thump.' 

Kenji paused his endless march coming to a halt for the first time since he had appeared in the Abyss.

'Thump.' 

Kenji's entire body shook as his heart beat for a second time, sending waves of power rippling through his flesh. Flesh that started to peel and crack before flaking off in pieces, revealing dark smoke that billowed like cloth in an invisible wind. 

Kenji held up his hand as his skin peeled away, revealing a pair of phantom limbs composed entirely of pitch-black smoke compacted together. The rest of Kenji's skin followed suit, and in a matter of seconds, he was no longer a being of flesh and bones. 

Reaching up to feel his face Kenji tried not to panic, while he could trace the vague shape of a face with his fingertips everything was too smooth and Kenji couldn't help but think of a mannequin. 

Letting his hands fall to his sides, Kenji's chest heaved as terror consumed his mind and he let out a gut wrenching scream. Kenji clawed at his incorporeal body, desperate to get rid of the smoke clinging to him, hoping that everything happening was just a terrible dream. 

Through the storm of emotions raging inside Kenji's mind he felt the abyss behind him ripple as something disturbed it. Spinning around Kenji watched as a rent opened in the abyss and a nightmarish creature flew through with an equally horrific screech.

The monster resembled a vulture covered in dark blue feathers, including its massive pair of wings, which easily spanned twelve feet across. The only exceptions were the raptor's feet, which were clad in dark gray scales and ended in large dagger-like talons, and its head. Instead of feathers, dark red tentacles of flesh emerged around the vulture's massive hooked beak and fanned out in a writhing man studded with random rows of gleaming white teeth. 

Then the vulture tucked in its wings pausing for a moment before it began to fall, quickly picking up speed as it dive bombed Kenji like a feathered missile. 

Standing his ground Kenji's smoke-like body started to writhe as something moved just beneath the surface. 

Between one breath and the next, the nightmarish vulture had closed in on Kenji. At the last second, it spread out its wings while extending its talons, ready to dig into Kenji with the force of a fifty-caliber bullet. 

But at the same time, a sea of barbed chains erupted from Kenji's skin, clawing through the air and quickly entrapping the abyssal vulture as the chains wrapped around its wings and beak, all while tightening and digging into its flesh. 

The vulture let out a screech, but this one was tinged with panic and terror, emotions that Kenji reveled in as his chains reeled in the vulture, wrapping around it tighter and tighter until the monster was completely hidden in a sphere of metal chains. 

Opening his arms, Kenji felt his stomach rumble and looked down to see his torso split open as a mouth appeared, spilling out a tide of purple light and lined with massive fanged teeth. 

As if sensing its approaching doom, the vulture started to thrash against its bonds, making the chains rattle. But its fate had already been sealed, and the chain sphere shrunk down to the size of a basketball, disappearing into Kenji's maw, which slammed shut. 

Kenji's body lit up with a dark purple light as the familiar screech of the vulture rang out through the abyss. Kenji felt a wave of power ripple through his body. Letting out another incoherent roar, Kenji thrust his glowing hand forward like a spear. 

But instead of hitting nothing, Kenji's hand disappeared, and the space in front of him rippled like water. Ripping his hand down, Kenji split the abyss in two, opening a rent just as the vulture had done, and for the first time in eternity, light spilled into the abyss. 

---

Kenji gasped as he spilled out of the portal and stumbled to his knees that slammed against the rough ground under him. Kenji's momentary pain was quickly forgotten as he realized what had just happened.

Reaching down Kenji's shadowy fingers trembled as he ran them through the coarse dirt and relished the feeling as the tiny granules dug into his skin. It felt like eons since Kenji had last felt…anything. 

Overcome with emotion it was a long time before Kenji picked up his head to look around, only to immediately wish he hadn't. 

In a stunned silence Kenji rose to his feet as he slowly spun around and cast his gaze out across the wasteland before him. Half demolished skyscrapers speckled the barren landscape like mountains which was littered with chunks of debris some the size of houses. 

For a moment, Kenji wondered where he was until he turned completely around and saw the wall. Once the symbol of security amidst a dangerous world, it was now a dilapidated heap of rubble overgrown with vegetation, and behind it, the purple pillar of light still shone. 

'How long have I been gone,' Kenji thought in horror as he turned away from the haunting sigh and looked around once more for some sign of civilization. But before Kenji could completely vet his surroundings, the ground started to tremble and Kenji's head snapped over as a heavily armored vehicle came into view from around a mountain of rubble. 

For a moment Kenji was elated to see that people had survived but it only lasted for a second as the vehicle drew closer and Kenji made out the various skulls strapped to the matte black truck. And while most seemed to belong to some kind of Dread Beast Kenji spotted some that seemed far to human for his comfort. 

Kenji didn't bother to run, the armored truck was headed straight for him meaning they had no doubt spotted him. 

A few seconds later the truck stopped a few meters away from Kenji and a second later the side door popped open and a small army poured out of the vehicle. 

"Well, well, well what do we have here?"